Tabletop Game /
Monsterpocalypse

Edit Locked

Monsterpocalypse is a collectible miniatures game from Privateer Press, the creators of the Iron Kingdoms setting and its war game spin-offs Warmachine and Hordes.

The idea is pretty simple: players take the role of giant monsters representing one of several factions vying for control of the Earth. The game itself is a little more complicated...

In a game of Monsterpocalypse, each player's monster is supported by up to 15 smaller figures representing "units", most of which can assist in fighting and some of which provide additional abilities to other figures. There are also figures that represent buildings, from apartment buildings to commercial skyscrapers to industrial sites, most of which will get destroyed during the battle between the two monsters; each player brings 2 to 12 buildings with which to populate the play map representing the battlefield.

Gameplay revolves around a pool of Action Dice which are used to spawn units, or to move or attack with units or monsters. Action Dice spent on units are moved into the pool for the monster, and vice versa; thus, players usually alternate between a Unit Activation (where they spawn, move, and attack with units) and a Monster Activation (where they move and attack with their monster). Players can also "power up" their monster by rolling action dice; this gives Power Dice that can be spend on devastating Power Attacks, to enhance regular attacks, or to transform their monster from its default Alpha form to its more powerful "Hyper" form. The object of the game is to defeat the opponent's monster by killing both its Alpha and Hyper forms.

The game's first core set, Rise, offers six factions:

G.U.A.R.D. (Protectors), a paramilitary force backed by the United Nations, spearheaded by giant robots and supported by an army of high-tech combat vehicles. Think GDI backing up Mazinger Z, and you're not far off the mark.

Terrasaurs (Radicals), dinosaur-like giant monsters, akin to Godzilla, that primarily target heavily-polluting industrial centers, and have thus earned the support of the Eco-Terrorist group Green Fury.

Lords of Cthul (Fiends), giant, eldritch, extra-dimensional monsters summoned by a secret cult that now rampage throughout major cities, spreading fear and terror apparently for the sake of it.

Planet Eaters (Destroyers), enigmatic aliens who seek only to ravage cities and consume as much biomass as they can find.

Martian Menace (Invaders), desperate alien invaders from the dead planet Mars who seek to plunder Earth of its rich resources.

Shadow Sun Syndicate (Collaborators), an enigmatic criminal cartel based in Japan that plots to save (and then take over) the world by fighting off the other factions with Ultraman-like super-soldiers known as Zors that can grow to the size of skyscrapers.

The following sets, I Chomp NY and All Your Base, introduced new monsters, new units, and new buildings. The fourth set, Monsterpocalypse Now, introduced six further factions:

Elemental Champions (Protectors), heroic samurai monks who channel the power of the elements to conjure giant warriors in order to combat the various threats to world peace.

Subterran Uprising (Fiends), underground-dwelling humanoids who, at the behest of their tyrannical new Underlord, seek to take over the surface world and enslave humanity.

Savage Swarm (Destroyers), voracious mutated insects who have emerged from the American Midwest and started devouring everything in their path.

Tritons (Invaders), undersea conquerors armed with giant sea monsters and amphibious assault craft that seek to take Earth's coastal cities for their own.

Ubercorp International (Collaborators), a sometime rival of the Shadow Sun Syndicate that has begun producing fierce robot duplicates of monsters from other factions for their own sinister purposes.

Big In Japan released even more monsters, units and buildings.

The game is also being used as the basis for a Voltron game, where Voltron and the Galaxy Garrison forces fight the Robeast Lo-Tron and the Drule Empire. All Voltron units use the same rules and stats as the rest of Monsterpocalypse (Galaxy Garrison are Protectors, Planet Doom are Fiends), and are fully compatible. So if you desire to have the G.U.A.R.D. to face down the Drule Empire, or want to see Voltron battle Martians, you can.

In summer of 2010, a movie adaptation directed by Tim Burton and written by John August was announced.

A Reboot was announced in 2018, taking the game more in a miniatures wargaming direction: models that you have to assemble and paint, but getting rid of the blind-bags and allowing you to more easily convert the miniatures.

Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever - This applies to all the units in the game. We have Shinobi, G-Tanks, Carnidons, Task Masters, etc., which are all over-sized versions of ninjas, tanks, dinosaurs, eldritch horrors, etc..

Author Avatar - One of the buildings available is the Privateer Press offices. It's indestructible, and very shiny.

BFG - There are quite a few Big Freaking Guns in Monsterpocalypse, Blastik-Rukivall and the Empire of the ape's Morpher have them among others.

Character Alignment - Each faction falls into one of 6 "agendas" which fill the role of alignments.

Protectors (G.U.A.R.D. and the Elemental Champions) are the good guys. They want to protect humanity and civilization as a whole, even if it means demolishing a few priceless monuments by throwing monsters into them.

Radicals (Terrasaurs and Empire of the Apes) have a goal and will do anything to achieve it, if civilization stands in the way of that goal then it's going down. Could be considered Well-Intentioned Extremist.

Fiends (Lords of Cthul and Subterran Uprising) are classic villains, motivated by a desire to spread as much death and suffering as they can. Always Chaotic Evil.

Destroyers (Planet Eaters and Savage Swarm) are basically just HUNGRY and they aren't too picky. It's nothing personal, they may not even be intelligent enough to bear a grudge, humans are just good eatin'.

Invaders (Martian Menace and Tritons) want something the humans have, natural resources, land, people, and they're going to take it whether we like it or not.

Collaborators (Shadow Sun Syndicate and Ubercorp International) are motivated by self-interest and greed. They may help people, they may hurt people, but in the end they won't do anything that isn't of benefit to them.

Chunky Salsa Rule - Under most circumstances, if a monster is thrown into a unit, or a unit is in the way of a charge, it's gone.

Crapsack World - Would you really want to live in a world where every giant monster movie and Super Robot show was going on at once?

Cognizant Limbs - Ancient Osheroth. In its initial form, there's four tentacles roving around, each of which can attack and be attacked separately while his main body remains hidden underground. When Osheroth goes into Hyper mode (whether voluntarily or because the tentacles were depleted of vitality) they get retracted and Osheroth itself makes an appearance.

Combination Attack - Two allied monsters can perform team-up attacks, such as the double head-butt.

Combining Mecha - Morpher-type monsters, (naturally) introduced in the Voltron expansion. At this point all 6 of the original factions have them, although with any of the factions other than G.U.A.R.D. it's more like combining Eldritch Abomination or Giant Ninja. They consist of four units as the alpha form of the monster, and one monster as the hyper form that the four units combine to make.

Drill Mole- Most of the Subterran Uprising units are these, most notable is Drillcon-Vorionnik.

Eco-Terrorist: the "Terrasaur" faction (Godzilla-like giant dinosaurs) are backed by an eco-terrorist group known as Green Fury. (A shout-out to Godzilla's origins as a warning of the dangers of nuclear testing.)

Enemy Mine - Every faction can be played along side one of two other factions in the game according to an "Agenda Wheel" provided by the game's manual. A faction may ally with whomever comes before and after them in the following list: GUARD and Elemental Champions (Defenders), Terrasaurs and the Empire of the Apes (Radicals), Lords of Cthul and Subterran Uprising (Fiends), Planet Eaters and Savage Swarm (Destroyers), Martian Menace and Tritons (Invaders), Shadow Sun Syndicate and Ubercorp International (Collaborators), and back to GUARD and Elemental Champions.

Extreme Omnivore - Though the Terrasaurs do enjoy a human-sandwich now and again, what they really enjoy eating is industrial waste. See also the Destroyers Agenda.

Extra Eyes - Mogroth has two enormous ones on stalks that come out of his back.

Excuse Plot: So far the plot has been just background info for factions that provides why the monsters are here and why nearly any of them will fight. In that regard it at least does a good job.

Fan Nickname - Crustaceor is always called Lobstroyer. Kondo normally gets called Grape Ape, because of his purple Quantum mode. Hondo and Yasheth are sometimes called DDR Ape and DDR Demon respectively, because of their 'action poses'.

On a releated note, Xixorax is also known in the Fandom as "The Buggernaught".

Gaia's Vengeance - Subverted. Though members of Green Fury claim that the Terrasaurs have awoken to punish man-kind for its rampant pollution of the earth, the ancient dinos actually seem more interested in eating industrial waste than extracting any kind of revenge.

The Empire of the Apes plays it more straight, though.

Geodesic Cast - Isn't it funny how all of the factions have the same numbers of units and monsters?

Highly Visible Ninja - Both subverted and played straight. The Shadow Sun Syndicate features giant ninjas called Zors as their monsters. These Zors are as tall as a building and are normally impossible to miss. Some, however, like to employ a special form of cloaking technology which makes it impossible to see them (and thus, hit them with ranged attacks) unless you get right up in their face.

Hot Scientist - Dr. Arisu Kaneko, genius nanotechnician and creator of the Zors for the Shadow Sun Syndicate. Word of God says she's also a hottie, and we'll just have to take that since she's never been shown in any official artwork.

Jet Pack - The GUARD monsters Sky Sentinel, Defender X and Nova ESR all have giant jet turbines attached to their backs which act as jet packs. The Airborne Apes use jetpacks as well, although they're cobbled together from the engines of wrecked planes.

Improbable Weapon User - Several Empire of the Apes figures. The Frontline Ape carries a security truck and Gakura uses a train as a flail.

Nuke 'em - Averted. There are so many monsters on so many different parts of the globe that nuking them all would mean the complete destruction of the planet. None of the factions actually want to blow the planet up, as then it would be useless to all of them.

Power Equals Rarity - Averted and played straight. The Mega versions of the monsters are only available through promotions. They have unique abilities and change the way the monster plays but generally they aren't any more powerful than the equivalent Ultra versions which can be bought in stores. On the other hand, promotional Shadow and Glass units are usually more powerful than the units they are based on.

They're also either one-shot units (while most units can be recycled again and again) in the case of Glass, or more expensive in the case of Shadow. In the end, it (probably) balances out.

Punny Name - The maps have some pretty bad ones, such as "Highway to Hellvue" and "Kill-Again's Island".

Rock Me, Asmodeus! - Most buildings in this game produce either a rubble tile, fire tile, nuclear tile or chemical tile when they are destroyed. Rubble tiles just make moving more difficult, while fire/nuclear/chemical tiles actually do damage to models that pass over them. Destroy the Music Producer building, and what do you see? A gate to the netherworld.

There Are No Coincidences - You might believe that it's really unfortunate timing that all these monsters show up at once, but the Tritons don't. The Zoa Prophecy predicts that the Monsterpocalypse would be heralded by a six-tailed star falling from heaven. The Planet Eaters came to earth on a comet that split into six parts and landed around the globe.

Tripod Terror - The Martian Menace monsters Deimos-9 and Phobos-7, and the Reaper and Despoiler units.

Turns Red - Defeating a monster requires you to defeat both the Alpha and Hyper forms. Those with a low hyper cost may be able to switch between forms almost at will with a good resource flow, but those with a higher cost may want to use this as a strategy, where they just use their power dice for attacks and only go Hyper if their Alpha form is defeated.

Villain with Good Publicity - Both the Shadow Sun Syndicate and Ubercorp International go to great lengths to keep up the appearance of being the good guys while making a tidy profit from the Monsterpocalypse to boot, at least in public. Ok, it's hard to view them as outright villainous when they are beating up the Lords of Cthul or the Planet Eaters but they certainly aren't the shining knights they want the world to think they are.

Weaponized Car - One of the Terrasaur units introduced in the All Your Base expansion is the Green Fury Van, a heavily-armed van full of heavily-armed eco-terrorists.

Weaponized Landmark - Your monster can throw another into the Chrysler Building to burn them, impale them on the Empire State Building, or roll the 'Pacific Eye', a huge ferris wheel, into them.

Weapons That Suck - The Subterran Opressor unit has vacuum weapons grafted to both of its arms. It uses then to suck up people!

We Have Reserves - The way the game works is that each player gets up to 15 units to go along with their one (or two) monster(s). Once a unit dies, it may be respawned during your next turn. This means that you can never exhaust your unit pool, leading to an infinite supply of cheap and disposable soldiers, unless they somehow decide to field all Fragile units.

Wrestler in All of Us - All of the Monsters can use 'Power Attacks', which include throws and body slams. Even Martian motherships.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy